Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore is available in Paperback and Kindle.
What kind of boyhood did Jesus Christ have? The cleverly adept Christopher Moore decided to put his own spin on the Son of God’s time on Earth and fill in the blanks where the four gospels and history left us all hanging.
The story is told through Levi who is called Biff. Christ’s childhood friend you never knew existed. Raised from the dead by a snarky angel Raziel (who also loves soap operas and pizza), Biff tells the story of his best friend Joshua (the name Jesus is actually a Greek translation of his Hebrew name Yeshua).
This delightful “fifth gospel” tells a striking tale as the two boys grow up in the farming town of Nazareth where Joshua is in turmoil over his destiny to become the Messiah. How does one become the Messiah anyway? Why doesn’t God just tell Joshua what he was sent to Earth to do? So at the age of thirteen, Joshua sets out from his small town to find his destiny with Biff in tow.
The two embark on a journey that have will have them becoming seduced by eight Chinese temptresses, being stalked by a demon, facing an abominable snowman, and even taking on the tedious task of teaching an elephant yoga.
Be prepared to laugh so hard, breathing becomes optional and become so deeply moved that the pages will be blurred from teary eyes. This has become my most favorite book and I look forward to reading it over and over again to relive the sheer genius of this book.
Cynthia D. Griffin 